Bankarstvo (Jan 2016)
50-dinar banknote from 1914: From an ugly duckling to a swan
Abstract
At the session of the National Bank's Board of Directors, held on 12 December 1914 in Niš, the Governor, Georg Weifert, in his address, gave the consent to issue the new type of a 50-dinar banknote in silver, which had already been sent to the Banque de France in Paris for printing. It was at this session that the closer details about this banknote were disclosed: it was to be painted by Beta Vukanović, and to be printed in the still unspecified amount, with the first delivery of 100,000 pieces planned for 2 January 1915. The first batch of the 50-dinar banknotes bearing the date of 1 August 1914 was received at the National Bank in Kruševac in the first half of March 1915. It remained in circulation from 25 March 1915 officially until 31 March 1934. There was a total of 1,025,000 printed pieces in the nominal value of 51,250,000 dinars, without a single recorded counterfeit copy. This war banknote was, however, short-lived. Prepared hastily with some mistakes in the inscription, it was met with a surprisingly huge opposition among the people who nicknamed it pegavac (spotted fever), which is why the National Bank immediately stopped its further releases into circulation. Thus, it was actually withdrawn from circulation already in 1915.
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